Why Grandpa is the Bomb!!!

There it was, the e-mail that almost made me want to be anywhere but here this weekend.

It is Thomas' visit to our local railroad and this was the reminder that it was time for us to buy our tickets.

No, not me.......

Let me explain.

I love Thomas, I buy Thomas stuff for Sweet-boy, I love the movies, I love building tracks for his trains to live on for a day and I love the corniness of it all, so why do I cringe? Well, last time we went with the whole family I was a month post my Hysterectomy, so the clanging of the train was a new experience in pain for me and my "Happy Pills" were not able to compete with all that jarring. Plus we are currently in the midst of packing and that was a time constraint that I could not deal with.

I e-mail Grandpa Extraordinaire!!!

Would you attend Day Out with Thomas with your little buddy?

Of course was the reply and so we got it arranged.

It was a logistic feat as Sweet-boy was on a school field trip and would need to be picked up from there by his Grandpa to be able to attend. Needless to say all powers to be were very accommodating and it went off without a hitch.

Here are my happy boys returning from a fun filled day with each other and seeing Thomas.

See that, one little guy that just ♥♥♥loves♥♥♥ his Grandpa. He got a Thomas tattoo on his hand and will not wash it off. He even asked if we could re-do Thursday so he could spend the day with Grandpa again.
Thank you Dad for doing that, you are the best Grandpa, not surprising since you were the Best Dad!!!

Here comes the Cat......

I have been a little bit MIA as of late so I need to let you know why. The cat is coming out of the bag........ We have been taking alot of weekend trips to here (any quesses?) and not just for the excuse of seeing our BFF's.

It is because we are finalizing a job and a house and getting ready to load our lives into one of these again and head North towards what we call - HOME!

In 1998 my husband dragged me kicking and screaming to Boise, Idaho and it was the worst and best thing that has ever happened to me and my family, see funny story here. We moved away in 2002 and have been trying to get back ever since then, and now the time has come. We are packing up our house, making final arrangements and moving forward in our lives where it has felt that we have been spinning our wheels for 2 years, waiting. I told The Man about three months ago that come the end of May we were moving, I did not know where but we needed to move on and take charge of our lives - the rest the Lord would need to deal with cause I could not anymore and here we are moving forward.

So wish us luck as we bid our place in Utah good-bye and move back to Boise, to friends and a place that is home to us. I cannot wait, it is the first move that I have really wanted and am excited about......

Week in Review

A blog that I haunt does the week in review. I like the idea and think that with my increased level of "lack of time" to consistently come up with great, witty, daily posts, we will do the week in review.

So here we go..........

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Took my written CNA test on Monday. Not bad it was all computerized and it was very similar to the lame tests that I had been practicing on. I hate these tests because you have to dummy yourself to ensure that you understand their questions. I wonder if anyone from the state level has taken one of these tests since conception. Some were so insulting that I wondered if I was not completely misreading the question. When I was taking the class I talked with my instructor on how the bookwork and the quizzes did not reflect the same information - this was a great mystery to all of us. I think that this is why she will be going through them all and correcting them as her Master's Project. But sadly I will not be a benefactor of that change. Anywhoo,..... I took the test at the closest facility and it was a massive testing center, on everything. Problem number one. I was placed in the back of the room on a computer and for a while it was quiet, then two (sorry stereotyping coming up) nit-wits (you all know what I mean, 20 year old space-cadets) came in to take another test. They were placed right beside me, I wondered at the wisdom of this when there were clearly other locations they could have been placed at, but there they were. I continued on with my test, able to think because it was quiet, when they started their test, it was a keyboarding test of all things. So for the next 30 minutes all I heard was "click, click, click and then snapping of the gum". I was dumbfounded at what I now had to test in -a very disruptive environment. So needless to say that of the 30 questions that I had answered I was sure of their accurateness, but the remaining 70 I was not so sure. I slowly read the questions and thought about the answers among the "click, click, click, snap", hoping that any minute they would finish the test. FINALLY they finished and got up, as noisily as they could, snapping that @^*$%%# gum the whole time. I took a moment to regain my composure and resumed the test. After all that, I was told that I had to wait for 2-5 days for the results to be mailed to me - what? So I left thinking that I might have not done so good, but there was the hope. I received the envelope and made The Man open it. He asked me what I thought I got and I said 90%, but it was better then that - I got a 94% overall and in some areas I got 100%. So that was a great something in the mail for me. I will take the skills portion on the 26th and hope to nail that one too. This one is worse, it is pass or fail and I am really nervous about that one.

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Wednesday, The Man took me out to lunch and to an afternoon movie. We saw the new Star Trek Movie, which I really recommend. If you were a Treky watcher when you were young you will really enjoy this one, the casting is dead-one and it was fun to watch the same mannerisms that we saw in the original cast duplicated in this one. Great two hours!!! He also bought me an MP3 player, I know big deal everyone has one, well not me, we are technologically backwards at our home - so this was a big deal. I would like to say that I love it but of the 2 minutes that I have listened to it, I am not sure I know how to work it. Drama Queen is seen with my gift in her ears most of the time now - oh well - I can share.

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The Man took me away for a weekend visit with my BFF. It is rare that both the spouses and all the kids get along but we do and it is always so wonderful to go and visit them. It was an early Birthday present and one that I really enjoyed!!!

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So that is my week, I wish that I could say that next week was going to be easy and not another week of running like a mad woman, but that is life as the mom.

First Celebrity Swine Flu Fatality

And we all know who the carrier is.

Tagged by the number eight

Top 8

My 8 favorite TV Shows
1- Castle
2- Law & Order
3- Dancing with the Stars
4- American Idol
5- Local News
6- Life with Raymond - reruns
7- WipeOut - so funny
8- America Funniest Home Videos

8 Things I did Yesterday
1- Laundry
2- Errands
3- Returned and purchased other Mother's Day gifts ( I know I am so picky)
4- Took my CNA written Test
5- Helped at my kids school with end of year testing
6- vacated my home twice for showings
7- had my tires totated
8- took 2 loads to the DI

My 8 Favorite Restaurants
1- Japanese Steak House
2- Out Back
3- Olive Garden
4- Panda Express
5- La Puenta
6- Cheesecake Factory
7- Johnny Carino's
8- Morelias

8 Things I am Looking Forward to
1- School being over for the year!!
2- Spending time with my hubby
3- Visiting my BFF
4- Payday
5- Swimming in the pool
6- having no schedule
7- Warmer weather
8- camping trips

8 Things on my Wish List
1- Future Posibilities
2- A secure future
3- Some $$ in my savings account
4- Disneyland
5- A trip with just my hubby
6- a puppy
7- Time to read
8- A better economy

Now I have to tag 8 people so I look forward to reading all of yours.
1- Heather
2- Caroline
3- Megan
4- Emma
5- Elana
6- Laurel
7- Rhondalue
8- Kate

The Pomp and Circumstance

This is a day that I never even thought would be an option for me.

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I decided that after so many semesters of trying to finish nursing pre-requisites and having to back out mid-way that I needed to do something in a more timely manner and something that I could also ensure would get my foot in the door and also to see if indeed I wanted to really be a nurse, when I grow up.

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So I enrolled in the Certified Nursing Assistant program at SLCC. It was a 9 week self-paced course that I determined should really only take me 5 weeks to complete. As with everything that I do, I became obsessed to complete the course before my kids Spring Break but to also complete it with the highest score of my class. I am glad to say that I did just that, in fact I completed it much sooner than my completion of my clinical portion. All I hoped to obtain was a chance to make a difference in a patients life by helping that person get better and walk out the door of a hospital, well on their way to complete recovery. It also is a skill that will enable me to be more marketable - I hope.

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But what I got was an opportunity to do something that I have never done, walk at Graduation. When the letter arrived telling me that I could participate in this celebration I was dumbfounded, and of course my family was so happy to support me in doing this, that the decision was made. The kids especially were delighted to come and watch mom accomplish something that was really hard on all of us in sacrifice of time. So early this morning, before most people were leaving for work we were up and dressed for the momentous occasion.Photo Opts with all the beautiful tulips the kids planted last fall.
The kids so happy to be out of school for the day.

Can you see me in the melee of people. I had to stand on my chair and scream and yell to get their attention.

I was waiting to see how badly they murdered my name, it was really hilarious but so great to be in the moment.

Look at me, I was close to tears and so happy to have my sweet family there to support me. I also felt the love and well wishes from all my friends and family far away. It was a great day and one that I hope my kids will remember. We are starting a wall of achievement where all our degrees will be placed, I want my kids to reach for a better life and know that it is an expectation in our family.

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What a great day - hail the college graduate, class of 2009!!!

Why it is Crucial to get some Girl Time

For the past four years my BFF and I look forward to getting together with 18,000 of our closests un-known sisters and spend two days being uplifted, rejuvenated and renewed. It is such a wonderful experience to do this, for four days we have names, we get to do whatever we want to do, even have mint brownines for breakfast if we want too, but that was not such a good idea. We laugh till all hours of the night and feel like teen-agers again until we call home and hear from our kids. Then they proceed to tell on Dad of all the things that he is not doing right. We console them and then chuckle that Dad is dealing with this and we get to ignore it all for another day.

So why is it Crucial to get girl time?

It is not only really, really necessary for the mom, helps with her sanity, but it really does make your family miss you. When I got home, I was tackled with hugs from my kids, Sweet-boy did not let go of me for the longest time. Drama Queen was not satisfied till she let me know all the things that had not gone as normal and that they had had Eggo's for dinner the entire time I was gone. My house is very messy and needing of a good scrubbing, laundry is it's own monster and the cookies and goodies are dangerously low, but I can see over all that. I have a renewed sense of who I am, that I make a big difference in the world and in my own little circle. Thanks Crazy Lady, WC would not be the same without you.